May 27, 2007

The 2007 Census: A Continuation of an Ongoing Scheme of Social Engineering

Brief Background on Repatriations from the Sudan

It is to be remembered that many Ethiopians, most of which consisted people of Welkayt-Tegede and the environs migrated to the Sudan as early as 1960s and ‘70s due to the civil war. They settled in refugee camps located in Derabil, Safawa, Umrakuba, Tewawa, Umgurdja and some in towns and cities such as Gedarif and Khartoum. Some managed to escape to third host countries such as USA and European countries but for most they had to live the harsh conditions and Sudanese government abuse until today. (This is is a topic of its own. I will come back to it some other time)

In mid-1990s, the TPLF led government with the help of the United Nations carried out a massive repatriation program of Ethiopian returnees from Eastern Sudan. In the 1990s the TPLF led regime started a repatriation program that was carried out under divisive ethnic lines of resettlement and that favored its supporters. Those that supported the TPLF and the once that were from the Tigrayan ethnic group were rewarded with generous compensations, fertile land, housing and free transportation to whichever destination they chose. Most of the Tigrayan returnees along with ex-TPLF fighters were resettled in places such as Humera and Rawyan, which are localities that rightly belong to the people of Welkayt-Tegede. Today, the Tigrayans residing in these areas have made a fortune and are big business owners. They are also, the most extreme hardcore TPLF supporters and financiers. Since they they are primary beneficiaries they are willing to do what ever they can to defend the TPLF and hence, their interests.

Unfortunately, for those who opposed the TPLF, particularly for the people of Welkayt-Tegede, the story was a whole lot different. Although, the UNHCR was supposed to carry out the registration and repatriation program (in cooperation with the TPLF gov’t), most of the insider work was run by TPLF hired cadres that made sure they opponents were left out by creating loopholes of filtering. One of these techniques was to impose Tigrayan ethnic identity on the people of Welkayt-Tegede. If an individual of Welkayt-Tegede native chooses to resettle in Welkayt-Tegede, they were required to state they ethnicity as Tirayans, since at that time the TPLF has annexed these regions into Tigray.

Nevertheless, many people were unhappy and outraged by this measure and began looking for alternative means of reaching their homeland. Others helplessly fell for the TPLF’s ill conceived and manipulative scheme of imposing new identity and arrived at their destinations. Those that were aware of TPLF’s poisonous plan chose to resettle in the “Amhara” region namely in places such as Gonder, Armacheho, Abderafi, and so on in an attempt to avoid that evil plan. Some of this people later moved to Welkayt-Tegede through the back-door, while other remained in the named towns and villages and started a new life maintaining their identity and dignity. Today there are thousands of Welkayt-Tegede natives living in Abderafi, Amachiho, and Gondar alongside the people with whom they share a common culture, psych, and identity for hundreds of years.

The 2007 Ethiopian Census and Imposed Ethnic Identity

The third national census is expected to be conducted starting May 28, 2007 in much of the country with the exception of Afar and Somali regions. According to Addis Fortune, (through AllAfrica.com), Ethiopia’s population was 39.5 million in the first census conducted in 1984. This number increased to 53.5 million in the 1994 census. Today Ethiopian population is estimated around 77 million. The third census was initially scheduled to take place in 2005 but was postponed as a result of the general elections that coincided in the same year.

In the same Addis Fortune article, Professor Beyene Petros and chairman of the opposition UEDF cautions the census to be carried out properly asserting that, “It is sensitive and has a serious implication on budget, identity and territorial issues." It is due to this fact and for reasons that I discuss above that I raise my suspicion in the process of the census. Are people allowed to freely state or declare their identity without any retribution of any form from the governments’ cadres? Even though the article states that teachers would conduct the data collection, I have no doubt that the government has a hand in manipulating the outcome in a way that favors its agenda.

In today’s Ethiopia where people are highly sensitive about their identity and where the political structure is based on ethnic identity, population census cannot be carried out clearly and freely. This is also true in Welkayt-Tegede, where there is a high tension between the Tigrayans and the native inhabitants. The Tigray people and the native inhabitants as well as the TPLF elites know that there is a clear sense of difference in their identity and socio-cultural makeup. However, these elites minimize/ignore all these factors and attempt to restructure the issue along language similarities, i.e. both groups speak Tigrinya.

In fact it is interesting to see TPLF’s absurd in way of dividing the people of Tegede. In an effort to legitimize its annexation of Welkayt-Tegede, the TPLF looked at the language pattern of the local people to determine how fluent they are in either Tigrinya or Amharic. Since, the people of Welkayt speak Tigrinya fluently their annexation to Tigray was assumed to be unquestionable, however the people of Tegede showed mixed patterns. The people residing in northern part of Tegede were leaning to Tigrinya, while those in the southern part were leaning toward Amharic. Thus, according to TPLF, those people who leaned toward Tigrinya language were considered of the Tigrayan ethnic group and consequently were incorporated into Tigray and the rest who leaned toward Amharic were left with the Amhara region.

As such, to the people of Welkayt-Tegede, this year’s census is nothing but a carefully orchestrated social engineering of redefining the identity of the local people in a standard that fitted their (the TPLF's) long-term goal of systematic and silent ethnic cleansing. It is saddening and humiliating to see the TPLF intentionally promoting the domination and extinction of minority people in a world in which humans are fighting for the preservation of extinct animals and plants. Today we are in a world where a larger and stronger group tries to respect and protect the rights of a minority group and where diversity is preferred to forced assimilation. Nevertheless, the TPLF has none of these good characteristics and these are the deficiencies that will ultimately bring its catastrophic demise.

May 21, 2007

Greetings to Our Gonder

Please take a moment to read the following two interesting poems authored by Lemlem Tsegaw. The first poem is titled "Anch yeGna Gonder" and the second one "Adowa." Both poems remind us of the condition our beloved Gondar and its people as well as the Ethiopian populous in general are going through under the current curse of the TPLF led ethnic dictatorship of divide and rule.

To read each of the poems in their entirety, please click here for "Anch yeGna Gonder" and here for "Adowa."

Many thanks and appreciation goes to the Author of both poems Lemlem Tsegaw. Again, than you so much for sharing Lemlem, and please keep it coming. Will gladly entertain it here.


****** "Adowa" *******

May 18, 2007

ye-Habtam deHa! Where is the dollar going?

The following two pieces of news articles are a little bit old, nevertheless, as you can read, millions upon millions of dollars are generated from sesame seed export from just the Wolqait area of our country. I am dumbfounded to learn that there is almost no basic development of infrastructure in this part of Ethiopia. Compared to the rest of Tigray where there are constant development of roads, hospitals, clean water and electric services, schools including universities are being built in every corner of Tigray with the exception of Wolqait-Tegede. I also read another news article with the same message as the once attached below. This article which came out just a few day ago (I could not find the source, but will post it as I find it), indicate that export of sesame seed has overtaken export of coffee in terms of the overall GDP of Ethiopia's export. The news indicate that China is the major importer of sesame seed from Ethiopia.
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Ethiopia town exports more sesame to int'l market
UPDATED: 07:59, July 27, 2006
Kefta Humera, north Ethiopia's Tigray state, garnered over 38 million U.S. dollars from export of sesame during the just-ended fiscal year (July 8, 2005-July 7, 2006), customs officials said Wednesday.
Aklilu Lema, senior officer with the Ethiopian Customs Authority, said in a news release that the revenue was obtained from the export of over 510,700 quintals of sesame to international market, 183,000 quintals more than the previous fiscal year.
During the past fiscal year, Ethiopia earned 142 million dollars from export of sesame. At present, the product has a 30 percent share of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), exceeding coffee that contributed a 60 percent share to the GDP three years ago.
The product was shipped to China,
Canada, Middle East, Europe and United States and China took the lion's share in Kefta Humera's export of sesame, Aklilu said.
The growing demand of sesame in global market and the increase in exporters engaged in the sector are the major factors for the increase in the volume of export, he said.
Located in the equatorial belt, Ethiopia has an ideal climatic condition that helps in producing sesame. Also, sesame produced in Ethiopia is of top quality.
Ethiopia is among the least developed countries where the economy is primarily agriculture based and quite backward. Like many other nations in Africa, Ethiopia relies greatly on the trade of primary goods.
Source: Xinhua
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China becomes Ethiopia's major export destination
Updated: 15:49, April 23, 2006

Ethiopia said Saturday China has become one of the Horn of Africa country's major export destinations this year.
Tekle Gebre-Hiwot, a senior official of Ethiopian Customs Authority, told journalists that Ethiopia exported to China 175, 000 tons of agricultural products, worth 123 million U.S. dollars, from July 2005 to March 2006.
Ethiopia's export to China before July 2005 was at a low level but it jumped following China's declaration of duty-free market access to African goods, said Tekle.
China has granted Ethiopia and other African countries the right to export 187 varieties of goods produced in the country duty-free, starting in 2005.
During the nine months, Ethiopia's total export to China included 142,825 tons of sesame seeds worth 112 million dollars, 28,594 tons of leather goods, hides and skin worth 10.4 million dollars and 3,712 tons of natural gum worth 275,850 dollars.
Source:
Xinhua

May 15, 2007

SOCEPP On Findings of Secret Prisons in Ethiopia

Of Secret Prisons and Labor Camps in EthiopiaSolidarity Committee for Ethiopian Political Prisoners (SOCEPP) Newsletter, April 2007

The recent issue of SOCEPP Newsletter discloses that the regime of Mele Zenawi, in Ethiopia, runs concentration camps in many places. The well known labor camps are in Dedesa, Zwai and Bir Sheleko. In these camps, the beating of prisoners is routine. Prisoners are starved and subjected to force labor. One reports that most of the hoards and wardens in Zwai hail are from ethnic group of the Prime Minster. Psychological torture and humiliation of the prisoners are also routine in these camps. Secret prisons have been identified in Quiha Tigrai, Welkait, Metekel, Holeta and other places. Prisoners are held incommunicado, denied medical treatment, beaten severely and mistreated daily. Reports indicate that such prisoners who die are buried in secret.

Source: http://www.debteraw.com/

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I wish the newsletter had more details, however, the fact is that the TPLF had established these secret prisons commonly known as "Bado 6" by the local people since early 1970s when this TPLF first occupied Welkait. To this day, thousands have been incarcerated in these underground torture chambers. Saddly, many do not make it to come out of it alive. Many of the youth from the native people (Welkait-Tegede) are still being incarcerated without the due processes of the law and for every minor or no reason. Some are are arrested for speaking out against the injustice committed on the Welkait-Tegede people, and others are detained because of a baseless suspicion of sympathising with the Ethiopian People's Patriotic Fron (EPPF).

May 4, 2007

TPLF: On a Mission of Antagonizing Ethiopians

As it has been mercilessly displacing the people of Wolqait-Tegede for the past 16 years, the TPLF is yet again displacing hundreds of thousands of Afaris from they own homeland. The recent report by Solidarity Committee for Ethiopian Political Prisoners (SOCEPP), indicates that Woyane has been resettling thousands of Tigrayans in the fertile Awash river basin in the Afar region at the expense of displacing countless Afaris and imprisoning those who opposed the occupation of their homeland without their consent. This is indeed an outrageous act that should be resisted at all costs. The ARDUF should continue it armed resistance by attacking TPLF military posts and soldiers. Similarly, we see the people of Wolqait-Tegede and the environs raising arms against the occupying and unwelcome oppressors. Albeit, it is sad to see the division of the Ethiopian people in general, what the TPLF is doing is an excusable. Because of its shameful act and claim of representing the Tigrayan people, many non-Tigrayan Ethiopians particularly the people of Wolqait-Tegede and Afar have developed deep resentment and hatred against the Tigrayans. Yes, what all Ethiopians need at this time is unity, love, and peace amongst each other, however, it is almost impossible to achieve this things under TPLF's blunt oppression of Ethiopians.